Machine readable cards (such as a credit card, a government identification card, a driver's license, a corporate identification card, a student identification card, or similar) are a well-known part of modern life. Many people are bound to carry around many of said machine readable cards for extended periods of every day. Their ubiquity has arisen on account of their convenience and many uses. Despite their usefulness, however, many components of said machine readable cards are fragile and prone to damage. For example, some cards comprise a magnetic strip. Magnetic strips are prone to damage due to repeated use due to friction wearing away critical portions of said magnetic strip. Likewise, holograms, electronic tags, thumbprints, and signatures are prone to harm due to repeated use and movement of said machine readable cards. Such use and movement can occur by the act of reading a magnetic strip with a card reader (sometimes called “swiping” a card). In another embodiment, merely carrying a card in one's pocket can cause a frequent rubbing of one card on another and thereby ruining a portion of said card. Likewise, carrying multiple cards in a stack in a pocket can cause several cards to be harmed due to said frequent rubbing.
Solutions for protecting said machine readable cards are well-known but, ultimately, ineffective. For example, in one embodiment, banks will ship new cards to users in a card sized envelope. Some such envelopes comprise protective materials for keeping their contents safe from friction and other harmful elements. This approach, however, only works where a user is willing to keep track of the bank issued envelope. This goal often proves to be unachievable due to mishandling and misplacing said envelope. Further, where said card is held in said envelope, the combination of the two is unlikely to fit in a standard credit card slot in an envelope. Consequently, many banks have ceased to issue cards in said envelopes altogether.
Another approach is to laminate said machine readable cards to ensure that portions of said cards are protected from harm. This approach fails, however, because lamination often makes cards unreadable by card readers. For example, in one embodiment, a laminated credit card will be too thick for a credit card reader. In another embodiment, a magnetic strip cannot be read through said lamination. Further, lamination is not removable and repositionable in cases where the machine readable card must be replaced or altered.
This disclosure relates generally to a system and method for protecting a machine readable card. In one embodiment, said machine readable card comprises a credit card, but use of a credit card is illustrative only and not limiting. Examples of card protectors can be found in US 2011/0048594 A1, US 2004/0148837, U.S. Pat. Nos. 4,370,397, 4,711,347, 4,865,890, 5,345,070, 5,532,459, 5,941,375, 6,905,742 B2, 6,913,188 B2, 7,028,893 B2, 7,748,608 B2, and WO 94/29769 A. However, one of the above inventions, taken either singularly or in combination, is seen to describe the instant disclosure as claimed. Accordingly, an improved system and method for protecting a machine readable card would be advantageous.